St. Louis Blues: San Antonio Rampage January Update

The St. Louis Blues have a number of top prospects playing at their AHL affiliate San Antonio Rampage, and like the Blues, the team is underperforming.

This is the first time since the 2016-2017 season that the St. Louis Blues have had a direct AHL affiliate. Before the Vegas Golden Knights came into the NHL last season, the Chicago Wolves were the Blues AHL team. Now, they have the San Antonio Rampage, and the organization can maneuver their players and coaches however they want.

Last season, the Golden Knights and the Blues shared the Chicago Wolves, and the team featured prospects from both teams. The San Antonio era has jumped off to a slow start, the team is seventh in their division with 31 points and are 15-17-1 on the year.

The Rampage, like the Blues, features some up-and-coming players but also has some incredibly disappointing performances to start the season.

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Perhaps the most disappointing part about the start to the Rampage’s season is their young goalie Ville Husso.

Husso is in line to be the next starting goaltender for the St. Louis Blues, that is if the team does not sign another goalie when Jake Allen‘s contract is up after the 2020-21 season.

Husso has not had a very good start to the season. In 20 games played in net for San Antonio, he has allowed 3.10 GAA with a .885 SV% and a record of 5-13-1. On top of the bad performances, the young goalie is also out for an undisclosed amount of time with an injury, leaving Evan Fitzpatrick in charge as the number one goalie.

Offensively, the top guys in San Antonio have all, for the most part, seen action in St. Louis at some point during the season. The point leader for the Rampage is Jordan Kyrou. Kyrou had a slow start to his professional career after tearing up the OHL.

Currently, the young Canadian has 22 points in 21 games including nine goals and 13 assists. He has apparently found his groove at the AHL level, despite being called up on multiple occasions to St. Louis.

With all the defensive turnover with the St. Louis Blues, I am a little surprised that Mitch Reinke has not been called up to the NHL yet this season. Reinke saw action during the final two weeks of the 2017-2018 season but has not seen action in St. Louis this year.

Reinke has certainly earned at least the consideration of being called up to the big club. He is currently second on the team in points with 18 and has two goals and 16 assists. This is an impressive start to the season considering the highest level of play he has played at was Michigan Tech of the NCAA.

Sammy Blais has been a disappointment so far this season. He started the year in St. Louis after making a significant impact during training camp. He failed to make an immediate impact at the NHL level, which led to his demotion to San Antonio.

Blais, in 16 games with the Rampage, has four goals and five assists. Granted, as seen in St. Louis, Blais possesses the ability to change the game with his physical play but its still unfortunate that he has still struggled to produce offensively.

Klim Kostin has also stood out in San Antonio this season, and is currently on loan to Team Russia during the World Junior Championships in Vancouver, Canada.

The Rampage, like the Blues, need to be better and it is a little concerning that some of the Blues prospects have had a slow start to the season. It would be nice to see the Rampage turn their season around because that would lead to an increase in production from some of the Blues best young players.